IslamicFinance.de

The Higher Shari’ah Authority at the Central Bank of the UAE, CBUAE, has hosted the 2nd meeting of the Centralised Shari’ah Authorities to discuss the economic implications of the COVID-19 pandemic. The meeting was held via a video conference and was attended by more than 40 participants from the members. The meeting discussed the Shari’ah parameters set to strengthen the economic and financial support scheme adopted by the governments and regulatory authorities in their respective countries. The attendees also discussed several matters with regards to challenges and Shari’ah treatments.

The Dubai Islamic Bank donated AED16 million to the Zakat Fund. Abdullah Aqeeda Al Muhairi, Secretary-General of the Zakat Fund, praised the bank for its donation as well as for its positive humanitarian and charitable role in improving the life of needy people. He also called on Islamic banks and institutions to follow the initiative of the Dubai Islamic Bank to provide zakat money to deserving groups and help the Zakat Fund achieve its goals.

The Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan Foundation received a AED1.2 million donation from Dubai Islamic Bank, to support its efforts to provide laptops to school and university students. The financial support comes as part of efforts to implement remote learning initiatives as part of UAE measures to prevent the spread of coronavirus, COVID-19. The foundation's director Mohammed Haji Al Khouri praised the bank’s donation as well as its timely response to the initiative. He stated that the foundation aims to strengthen its partnerships with government authorities, banks, companies, key sponsors and strategic partners to help mitigate the impact of the pandemic.

The Sharjah Department of Culture is organising the 22nd edition of the Sharjah Islamic Arts Festival from 11th December 2019 to 21st January 2020. The new edition's theme, 'Prospect', will serve as a concept to unite artists and art enthusiasts. The festival will contain 253 activities in the form of exhibitions, lectures, and workshops. More than 28 organisations assisted in the coordination of the festival's projects. There will be 55 exhibitions at the Sharjah Art Museum, Al Majaz Waterfront, Maraya Art Centre and at other locations. These exhibitions will be presenting works of artists from the UAE, the neighbouring Arab countries, and other countries from around the world.

UAE-based fintech company Wethaq has issued the first pilot sukuk on its securities market infrastructure. Al Ghurair Investments acted as the issuer advised by Mashreqbank acting as lead arranger, R3 as protocol provider, Clifford Chance as legal counsel and the Dubai Islamic Economy Development Centre as mentor. Wethaq’s fintech infrastructure is developed on R3’s Corda Protocol integrating SWIFT global payments innovation, gpi Link platform. By using the gpi Link, Wethaq will be able to seamlessly integrate SWIFT’s gpi service into its platforms, opening itself up to more than 3,500 banks around the world. SWIFT gpi Link is a gateway to interlink ecommerce and trading platforms and enables a fast, secure and transparent settlement.

Assets of the Islamic banks operating within the UAE totalled to 535 billion AED by the end of last month. That is around 6% growth since the beginning of this year. And it accounts for 20.2% of the total banking assets in the country. These are valued at around 2.639 trillion AED during the first 10 months of 2017, according to figures of the UAE Central Bank.
This obvious growth in Sharia-compliant financial operations in the UAE mirror the significant development of these kind of banking products which have been enjoying impressive growth across the whole region in the last few years.

According to Central Bank figures, the value of credit provided by the Islamic Banks since the beginning of 2017 until October surged to 361 billion AED, a growth of 7.7% against that of December 2016.
Loans and credit facilities provided by Islamic banks make up 22.8% of total loans provided by the entire banking system in the UAE, valued at 1.584 trillion AED by the end of last month.